1. Field of the Invention
The Invention relates to a gate driving circuit that drives a switching element having a MOS gate structure, such as a MOSFET or an IGBT.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a conversion frequency in a switching power supply apparatus has increased as it has been requested to decrease a size of an apparatus. For this reason, in a metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) that is used as a main switching element of the switching power supply apparatus, a gate driving circuit that supplies a high-speed gate driving signal between a gate and a source is provided. In particular, a technology for regenerating surplus energy accumulated in the gate driving circuit to the side of a direct-current power supply using a resonance circuit including a capacitor between the gate and the source of the MOSFET and an inductance element, decreasing a gate driving loss of the MOSFET, and switching the MOSFET at a high speed is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication (KOKAI) Nos. 5-207731 and 2006-54954.
However, since gate driving circuits that are disclosed Japanese Patent Application Publication (KOKAI) Nos. 5-207731 and 2006-54954 is configured in consideration of a non-insulating power supply apparatus, the gate driving circuits cannot be applied to an insulating power supply apparatus.
The gate driving circuits that are disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication (KOKAI) Nos. 5-207731 and 2006-54954 include a charging circuit, a discharging circuit, first and second power regenerating circuits, a zero-voltage clamping circuit having a switching element, an inductance element, and a zero-voltage clamping element, and a driving voltage clamping circuit having a switching element, an inductance element, and a driving voltage clamping element. For this reason, in each gate driving circuit, the circuit configuration is complicated, and control of individual switching elements constituting each gate driving circuit also becomes complicated.